Transition from High School English Class to College English Class

This Expanded English Composition course has been a thrilling rollercoaster ride where I am filled with anticipation of when it will start, and excited when I conquered and survived it when the ride is over. This class has been exactly that. I felt as if this class would begin intense and calm down in the end or at least I would have a better understanding of English that I either forgot or did not understand. Through this course I know I have made continuous improvements in my writing English essays overall, and my grammar has improved drastically though I know that it still need more development. Last semester and especially this semester I have come to realize that I am not as horrible of a writer as I thought. Dr. Spear says that “[I] have a Cheerleader” style of writing which I have to agree with her about. This class opened my eyes to see how writing has so much to offer and everyone has their style of writing that can be incorporated to meet more than what is required. I feel I have achieved this so far so far and only took to improve more overtime.

In the beginning of this course on English and writing, I was a little trepidatious, but also quite excited. I have always struggled with writing, so I did not know how well I would perform in this class. At the same time, I was also looking forward to what I could learn, appreciating the thought that my writing could improve by taking a college English course. Indeed, the skills that I have learned during this class have improved my academic writing, and have allowed me to discover areas to develop further.

In this semester, I had to take the English 1301 course. However, I did not see myself liking this course and did not have the best attitude towards it. This course changed my overall experience with writing. In the course I gained so much knowledge that I did not see myself learning. This essay will help analyze my experience throughout the entire journey. It will help understand how I became the writer I am today. Over the last several weeks, I have grown into a great writer that I did not see myself as.

English Composition II has unexpectedly improved my writing into an academic level. As I studied various English reading and writing courses, this class “English Composition II” did not immediately caught my eye. However as I researched about the concepts of this class, the decision to make was not so difficult since I was lacking in critical thinking and the interpretation of works. Also as a Business Major, it made sense that the subject of English would be of interest to me and as a career requirement. During the first weeks, I thought that I would be fully prepared for this course after taking an accelerated course in English during the spring semester. However, after attending class for about a month, I certainly did not expect to learn an entirely new process of writing

Throughout the semester, I have developed many skills and have greatly improved on my writing. At the beginning of the year, I had no clue how to format a paper in APA. I had only used MLA format before this year, so I was clueless. Also, I never knew how to correctly write an introduction. I did not know that an introduction needed to include a hook. I knew that it needed a thesis statement but I was never writing my thesis correctly, until this year. Finally, I never knew how to correctly include transitions.

In the course of this semester of writing, I grew more than I ever had in my ability to write well. I remember on the first day of class several other students were talking about how hard this writing professor is. I was a bit worried and even thought about switching to an easy professor for a guarantee A so I can get a 4.0. Now, I am grateful that I chose to decide to work hard for a 4.0 instead. Even though I may not get it, I am still glad I stayed because for once, I learned and became a better writer. I can see that my knowledge of conventions definitely improved from last semester. I really loved the feedback for my assignments, since it allows me to realize what I need to improve on and what I should keep doing. Unlike the previous semester, the writing professor only told us our grade on the very first assignment after two months. There were no feedback on how I could improve either, so I had no idea if I was having trouble with anything. Prior to this course, I always had trouble writing sentences and organizing them in such a way that flows and delivers my idea well. I also rarely outline or plan out how I will write a paper too, and even when I did, it was very vague. Out of the five learning outcomes, I grew the most in rhetoric knowledge and writing process from the reading responses and 4 assignment.

I’m not going to say that I didn’t learn in this class because I did. I learned how to correctly organize my thoughts into good arguments with fact to back them up. I learned how to change my tone when I speak to different audiences. Still, I don’t think this semester was as much about me learning, as me accepting that fact that I’m not the greatest writer in the world. I can get better and there are many areas in which I need to improve even now. My critical thinking is still lacking because I don’t bother to think past the most obvious ideas. My writing is a constant struggle between where procrastination and struggling to form and understand my own opinions. I know how a better understanding of my weaknesses and can use what I have learned this semester to make up for my writing flaws.

In high school, writing essays was my weakest link. When I began my first semester of college, I still had that trouble in my first writing composition class. I improved significantly from gaining organization and length. When I started my second writing composition class, my grades for my paper sky rocketed! The essays I have written though out this semester have shown improvements in context and organizations, however, I still have some room for improvement on reasoning’s and thesis statement.

Throughout this semester we have had to write many types of essays. Although this is a college English class there is still room for improvement. I made much improvement during the semester of the class. I was able to identify my weaknesses. I learned how to make improvements to the areas I was having problems in. Although each essay we did was different I was able to begin with one essay and throughout the semester turn it into two other essays. I was able to change my style of writing to fit the type of audience I was working with. I will continue to work on my writing and keep improving it.

This semester I learned many new things in my English 1301 class. I took this class last year but I had to drop it because I didn’t have a professor explaining the work to me. And I really didn’t understand what I was doing. At first, I was scared to take this class. During my high school years I wasn’t that good of a writer. I thought this composition class was going to be hard since I sometimes thought it was hard in high school. My writing experience was good and sometimes bad. This semester in the composition class I had many writing strengths and weaknesses. These strengths and weaknesses is what helped me learn the errors I was making while writing essays this semester.